The holiday season is the time to focus on what’s truly important: Spending quality time with friends and family, being thankful for all the blessings in your life, and showing how much you care by giving of yourself. But after being bombarded with commercials and marketing messages galore, it can be easy to forget what it is that makes the holidays special. After all, pressures to give, give, give and receive, receive, receive, only add fuel to the fire of materialism. Check out these reasons why it may be better to take the focus off of material comforts this season — and turn it back on what really matters.

This article on HuffPost is worth checking out. From what I understand, the research shows that money matters to a point, but only to a point. Once you have enough to live moderately comfortably, increased happiness is most likely to come from having good friends (whether they be relatives or not). Interestingly enough, this was understood by ancient Greek philosophers like Epicurus, so it’s old wisdom, but wisdom nonetheless.